Production professionals create draft schedules, budgets, cash flow documents and contacts to accompany their projects, throughout the pitching and development process and into production, updating each as changes arise. A project might go through a dozen or more schedules, budgets, cash flow documents and contact sheets from pitch to broadcast and delivery of final documents.
Companies must first schedule the different phases of production (pre-production, post, etc.) by number of departments and time needed. Then each of those weeks is broken down by components (how many staff members, editing suites, etc.). Those components build the basis of the production calendar or schedule. The cost of those components builds the basis of the production budget (reflecting overall costs) and production cash flow (periodic costs, e.g., weekly expenses). Finally, the more “fixed” operating costs (overhead, insurance, etc.) complete the budget and cash flow documents.
Many production professionals build schedules in calendaring software with user interfaces that defy simple updates or dramatic schedule changes. The vast majority of production professionals build budgets and cash flow documents in spreadsheet software, often with formula errors, that they copy from show to show and adapt. Quotes are updated manually with every new project. Changes to a show's schedule cannot easily be reflected in the show's budget and cash flow, or vice-versa. As a result, this approach is inconvenient, time-consuming and error-prone.
In addition, the common calendaring software applications that most companies use are highly inflexible. The typical production constantly changes start or end dates and loses or adds production weeks several times in the production process. Common software requires manual cutting and pasting of every changed item on the calendar, which is time-consuming and all too easily causes scheduling mistakes. Worse, those changes must be manually documented then manually entered into the budgeting and/or cash flow applications for conformity.
Common calendaring software applications are highly inflexible. In some calendar programs, additional entries that exceed the defined space on the interface do not appear on the original interface. Instead, a visual cue, such as a down arrow or ellipses, indicates more entries appear on the date. This prevents the user from seeing all items for that date in the interface and precludes printing a calendar that shows all events on that date.
In addition, common spreadsheet software applications are inconvenient, time-consuming and error-prone. When creating a spreadsheet, a user may create a range of data that exceeds the width and/or length of a viewable page (as defined by industry standard screen sizes). Current practice requires toggling to a “print view” interface to see the data in page format, but print views do not allow editing within the interface. Editing requires returning to the editing interface, searching for the data or data range to be edited, performing any changes, then toggling back to print view to see it in page format again, a process that is time-consuming and ripe for error. In addition, in some applications, a user can define a printable area to restrict the content to be printed so it fits on the printed page or allow the spreadsheet application to print according to default page breaks. A user also can define repeating upper rows or left-side columns. The problem is, a user must individually set all parameters for the printed page, which can be time-consuming to do and put the user at risk for error.